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Best Article Prize

British Catholic History, the journal of the Catholic Record Society, is delighted to announce the establishment of an annual prize of £500 which will be awarded to the most outstanding article published in the journal each year. The aim of the prize is to encourage and acknowledge outstanding research, effectively communicated, on any aspect of British Catholic history that aligns with the remit of the journal: to publish innovative, vibrant, transnational, interdisciplinary scholarship resulting from research on the history of British and Irish Catholicism from the 15th century up to the present day.

From 1 January 2020, all articles published in BCH during each calendar year will automatically be considered for the British Catholic History Best Article Prize. The members of the BCH Editorial Advisory Board will review all eligible articles and select the winner. We welcome submissions from authors at all stages of their academic career; and those from younger scholars are particularly welcomed. 

The first winner of the Prize will be announced in December 2020 and will be invited to receive formal recognition at the annual conference of the Catholic Record Society held in July of the following year. 

All submissions to the journal should follow closely the ‘Instructions for Contributors’ available at the journal’s website here.

Winning articles will be listed below.

Contents

Research Article

  • Destruction, Deconstruction, and Dereliction: Music for St Thomas of Canterbury during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, 1530-1600

  • Katherine Emery
  • Journal:
    British Catholic History / Volume 36 / Issue 1 / 2023
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    08 June 2022, pp. 5-31

  • Between the late-twelfth and early-sixteenth centuries, much music (both liturgical and non-liturgical) was written in honour of St Thomas of Canterbury. However, in the 1530s his cult became a major target for reformers and, in 1538, Henry VIII (1491-1547) ordered the destruction of his shrine and the obliteration of all music written in his honour. This article will examine how music composed to memorialise St Thomas was treated during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. It explores the process of self-censorship prompted by Henry’s proclamation on the cult of St Thomas that led to his erasure from liturgical books in England. It analyses the attempts by reformers to discredit music concerning St Thomas, particularly by radical reformer John Bale (1495-1563). Finally, it examines music that was composed by Catholics for St Thomas during the Counter-Reformation and asks what it can tell us about the state of the cult in the late sixteenth century. This approach results in an overview of St Thomas’ cult during the later sixteenth century and contributes to our understanding of changing conceptions of the saint by Catholic communities in the post-Reformation world.